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Common exoplanet 15 EP

HD 33142 b

RA 76.8981° · Dec -13.9863° · exoplanet

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Score breakdown

· 3 badges
15 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Multi-planet system +6
  • Confirmed exoplanet +5
  • Gas giant +4
Total score 15

7 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Confirmed exoplanet · +5
  • Gas giant · +4
  • Multi-planet system · +6

Trivia

Hard to believe

  • It would float. It is less dense than water. Drop it in a big enough ocean and the whole world would bob on the surface.

What it actually is

  • What it is made of. Lighter than Neptune — a puffed-up ball of hydrogen and helium with no surface anywhere on it to stand on.
  • Crowded system. One of at least 3 planets orbiting its star.

Sense of scale

  • In perspective. Far away by human standards, yet still a local address inside the Milky Way's spiral arms.

Find it in the sky

  • How to spot it. At magnitude 8 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in.
  • Southern sky. It rides the southern half of the sky — an easier target the further south you are.
  • Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around December — that's when to go looking.

Could we get there?

  • Verdict. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.

Properties

density gcc
0.856
diameter km
174759.94
discovery facility
W. M. Keck Observatory
discovery method
Radial Velocity
discovery year
2011
dist ly
395.8718
eccentricity
0.049
eq temp k
477.5
host star teff
5025.4
insolation
8.6781
mag
7.96
mass earth
400.4638
name
HD 33142 b
orbital period days
330
radius earth
13.7
semi major au
1.074
spect
K0 III
sys num planets
3
sys num stars
1

About HD 33142 b

HD 33142 b is a common exoplanet. It lies about 395.9 light-years from Earth, shines at apparent magnitude 7.96, has spectral type K0 III and has an equilibrium temperature near 478 K.

Lighter than Neptune — a puffed-up ball of hydrogen and helium with no surface anywhere on it to stand on.

How to see it

At apparent magnitude 7.96, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 33142 b is best seen from a dark site away from city lights, and when it is above the horizon depends on your latitude and the time of year. The visibility panel above works out tonight's viewing window for your saved location.

Why HD 33142 b is a common exoplanet

HD 33142 b scores 15 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 7 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 3 science badges — Confirmed exoplanet, Gas giant and Multi-planet system — each earned for a real, measurable property of the object. Rarity on Spacedle is never random: the more remarkable an object's astrophysics, the more badges it collects, the higher it scores, and the rarer it ranks.